We we’ve had crossbills all over the place up in Grindstone, but the trees have been masting.
The oak trees in my yard are still masting -sending out a deluge of acorns like drops of rain on my lawn. As I'm typing this, 3 squirrels ran past my window. The first was a bushy grey squirrel, then a fat black squirrel followed by red squirrel. I'm convinced that I've 3 different species of oak.
It is so interesting. We are having a masting year with spruce trees. The whole ecosystem changed with influx of Pine Siskin birds and every kind of squirrel known
The red squirrels are little buggers. The oak trees surrounding the house are masting - producing tons of acorns. So the red squirrel's way of harvesting, is spending the morning nipping off the branches with acorns on them & collecting them while on the ground. The back yard is littered with these.
I just googled and masting is happening in the UK as well, so it is not limited to North America.
I didn’t know about masting. That explains the oak trees carpeting the sidewalks and roads here, too. 😲
It's masting. Oak trees do it all synchronously across North America. Biologists are trying figure out if there is some chemical or other means of communications between the oaks across the continent, or if it is a response to weather conditions, or if they have a year counter like 17 year locusts.
The oak trees in my yard are "masting" again. "Masting" is a strategy that oak trees have evolved where every few years, they produce so many acorns, that the squirrels and other animals that eat them, cannot keep up. It gives the oaks a better chance at reproducing. This year, acorns abound.
